Que: India’s renewable energy ambitions are accelerating fast, but the asset base remains highly scattered in terms of technology and geography. What are the operational blind spots you believe the sector still overlooks?

Ans: The sector often operates on a few blind spots/myths:
• The first – ‘Rapid capacity growth means performance’. Yes, we’re adding capacity quickly, but the backend isn’t keeping pace. Truly, performance means functionality of an asset to its rated capacity, with sound technical health, safe – no bypassing or missing parts, and thus securing full freedom to operate.

• The second - ‘Once an asset is built, operational inefficiencies are minimal’. But in reality, construction pressures, shortcuts or delays often create issues that surface only during operations.


Such a disconnect becomes even more visible at scale. India’s renewable energy footprint is vast, but that very scale introduces complexity, ageing assets, scattered OEM technologies, and highly variable site conditions. Critical layers like digital infrastructure and even basic data hygiene frequently lag behind, leaving a fragmented view of asset performance.

At POWERCON, we are seasoned technical detectives with 3 decades of domain expertise to detect such blind spots and to provide a cure and care during the asset creation as well as the operations phase. It’s not just about helping build more assets, but it’s more about controlling the built quality and then extracting more from what’s there on the ground.

Pouring off capital during the construction phase qualifies for returns over the lifetime. The rate of returns and payback period is a function of operations cost per kWh, productivity and longevity. So, in principle, ‘yield maximisation’ becomes the North Star, and as such, our model focuses on making operations smart, scalable, and responsive. I’ve always believed in controlling the uncontrollable, and in our space, that begins with hands-on groundwork along with data intelligence.

Que: With India’s net zero goal by 2070 on the table, innovation in O&M is becoming pivotal. What are the most significant technology shifts you’ve implemented at POWERCON that move beyond incremental fixes and instead reshape the way assets ar

Ans: Net zero by 2070 isn’t going to be achieved through maintenance checklists; it requires detection of deficiencies, enhancing throughputs, reducing downtimes, and correlating the availability of assets during the times when the renewable resources are available the most.

That’s why POWERCON has moved beyond incremental fixes and built a centralised intelligence layer through our Asset Management Studio, powered by BaxEnergy. It’s more than just a monitoring tool; it integrates operations across different geographies into a unified control room, enabling real-time decisions and performance benchmarking at scale.

We’re enabling comprehensive Asset Management by marrying our deep O&M expertise with AI-led diagnostics, predictive analytics, and OEM-agnostic platforms that can unify and simplify operations across diverse portfolios.

We have gone a step further with our new product ‘FarSight’ – the AI-powered Renewable Energy Management System with a rapid self-onboarding plausibility without depending on external support. It provides a freemium whereby the IPPs can undertake a proof-of-concept (POC) independently, without any obligations. The idea is to relieve IPPs from capital-intensive asset management solutions and thus enable them to use state-of-the-art platforms to deliver ‘more MWh of Energy per MW of Power’.

Que: Managing turbines of different vintages, OEMs and conditions is not easy. What have been the hardest lessons in maintaining consistent performance across such a varied fleet, and how have those lessons shaped your O&M strategy?

Ans: The biggest lesson has been that uniformity in process doesn’t guarantee consistency in performance. Managing a diverse fleet demands a lifecycle-specific approach, not a one-size-fits-all checklist.

We’ve invested in training, diagnostic tools and equipment tailored to different asset types and conditions. We reengineer application-specific solutions and implement them across the fleet for the enhancement of the safety and productivity of assets. Performance retrofits and upgrades based on real-life learnings are introduced for asset longevity.

Our strategy thus blends on-ground expertise with data intelligence, enabling us to act proactively rather than just reacting. That’s what allows us to extract peak performance from every turbine, no matter its age, make, or location.

Que: In wind energy, safety is often treated as a parallel concern to output. What’s your take on the idea that safety and performance are deeply interlinked, and how does that thinking translate into your ground-level operations?

Ans: At POWERCON, safety isn’t an afterthought; it’s foundational to how we deliver performance. A safe site is a productive site. We follow strict ground clearance protocols, adhere to global safety standards, and imbibe a culture of safety among each member of the Power-Team. Functionally, we have a mechanism solely focused on safety oversight and audits, including dedicated Safety Officers.

Understanding the need for a highly specialised RE industry, a unique course – ‘Renewable Asset Safety Officer (RASO)’ has been launched through a joint effort of Centre of Renewable Energy (CORE) and YCM Open University (YCMOU). The RE Industry will receive the RASOs beginning January 2026.

We’ve also embedded safety into our performance strategy, from scheduling maintenance during low-wind windows to deploying the right manpower with the right gear at the right time. That reduces not only downtime but also the risk of emergency interventions. When safety and efficiency go hand-in-hand, we see fewer interruptions, greater team confidence, and more predictable energy output.

Que: O&M in renewables used to be about uptime and cost. Now it’s increasingly about intelligence, foresight and optimisation. What are some of the deeper insights your data teams are surfacing that are changing how decisions are made at the site lev

Ans: You're right, O&M has evolved from just ensuring uptime to becoming a deeply intelligence-led, precision-driven function. This is where our data teams are surfacing insights that go far beyond traditional monitoring. We’re detecting micro-trends in turbine behaviour, how specific machines respond to terrain, wind shear, or ageing components, and using those patterns to calibrate operations in real time.

We’re leveraging trend analysis for spares forecasting, reducing last-minute callouts and downtime. But what’s equally important is how these insights are made actionable. We’ve built workflows where site teams don’t just respond to alarms; they make informed decisions based on historical data, probabilities, and asset-specific risk models. It’s a shift from firefighting to foresight.

Correlations based on learnings prior to a failure, via-a-vis mapping the pertinent conditions while the assets are operational, is like a neural network feeding the artificial intelligence to predict a possibility of failure. Such predictive analytics helps in a proactive solution to an anticipated failure.

Que: As the clean energy sector becomes more competitive, scale alone no longer guarantees impact. What, in your view, distinguishes a true O&M partner from one that merely meets the SLA checklist, especially in a sector where downtime comes with rising st

Ans: In today’s clean energy landscape, where every unit of energy counts and downtime carries a strategic cost, a true O&M partner should have a complete Ecosystem that is beyond ticking SLA boxes or providing service delivery.

The POWERCON Group is a 360-degree RE Ecosystem, configured through autonomous SBUs that serve every need across the entire RE delivery chain. As an O&M partner, our completeness resides in 5 M’s – Man, Material, Machinery, Methods and Money. POWERCON’s CORE Academy is a manufacturing facility of RE commandos profiled through rigorous workshops, classrooms, simulators, and sandwiched with on-the-job training. Our multi-national presence, plus global tie-ups with OEMs and service providers, ensures availability of spares of every make of turbines, to and from India. Our Centre for Engineering Excellence (CFEE) fights technology obsolescence through re-engineering, handles repairs and refurbishments of components to bring them back to life.

Specialised machinery, jigs and fixtures specific to applications is our in-house design effort. Our 3 decades of experience, poured into a knowledge bank, encapsulate all the needed methods to operate and maintain RE assets optimally.

We don’t just maintain machines; we co-own the performance. That means aligning with our clients' goals, innovating at the edge of operations, and creating long-term value, not short-term fixes. That’s the difference between being a vendor and being a partner that scales with purpose.

Que: What will be the defining factors that determine whether India’s renewable energy push translates into long-term operational resilience? Where does leadership in O&M need to go next to truly future-proof this transition?

Ans: India’s renewable energy journey won’t be judged by megawatts installed, but by how reliably and efficiently those assets perform over their lifetime. Long-term resilience will depend on robust lifecycle management, smarter digital tools, and adaptive maintenance models that evolve with asset age and tech shifts.

The ones in the renewable energy business have to move from reactive fixes to predictive and insight-driven O&M, using intelligent platforms and skilled teams, and upgrade assets to meet evolving codes for present and future readiness. Future-ready leadership means learning from assets continuously and building a system that’s as dynamic as the transition itself!